gmhTODAY 13 gmhToday March April 2017 | Page 15

Fix Our Roads, Governor! community have lots of good ideas. We want them to continue to be engaged, to keep communications open, and to help them understand that at the current funding levels our roads will continue to deteriorate. The City is reviewing infrastructure needs and will be identifying potential funding options to find an affordable and sustainable solution that the community will support.” Visit the City of Morgan Hill website, morgan-hill.ca.gov/1201/Safe-Sustainable- Streets. Gilroy 2017 When Gilroy’s Department of Public Works gave its State of the Streets Report to the City in April 2016, then-Mayor Perry Woodward suggested that the City Council dip into General Fund reserves to supplement its budget for maintaining city streets and roads. The Council voted and approved an additional $2.5 million for this work, which includes all of the activities that go into road design, construction, and construction management. City of Gilroy Phase I Pavement Maintenance Projects: Phase I projects are currently under construction and will improve sections of Miller, Welburn and Murray Avenues, Third Street, and Princevalle Street; and bring average PCI values into or higher in the target range of 70-100 on those street segments. Total Project Area: 710,063 sq.ft. Estimated Cost: $1.3 million City of Gilroy Phase II Pavement Maintenance Projects: Phase II projects currently in the design phase will tentatively improve sections of Church Street, San Ysidro Avenue, Uvas Park Drive, Welburn Avenue, and Westwood Drive; and bring PCI values into or higher in the target range of 70-100 on those street segments. I Total Project Area: 627,000 sq.ft. Estimated Cost: $1.1 million. According to Gilroy’s Interim City Engineer David Stubchaer, “It’s not just the pavement condition of a road that determines its priority for road maintenance, we have to look at individual streets as part of the citywide system. We look at traffic counts. It’s a higher priority to maintain arterial and collector roads because more people use those roads.” According to the Gilroy State of the Streets report, if the current funding level of roughly $300,000 per year remains the same over the next 15 years, the average PCI for the city’s streets will drop to 34, or “Poor” condition. “Currently we have $2.5 million for Phase I and II projects. We anticipate $1 million in annual funding from Measure B, and we will continue to go after grants,” Stubchaer said. “This multi-pronged approach will help us slow the decline in Gilroy’s average PCI, but without grants, we’re still approximately $2.2 million short on an annual basis. We have to make the tough decisions with limited budget resources.” GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN MARCH/APRIL 2017 n January, Governor Brown renewed his commitment to infrastructure and asked state legislators to work together to fund improvements. The Fix Our Roads Coalition applauded Brown and called for support of two bills, Senate Bill 1 (Beall-San Jose) and Assembly Bill 1 (Frazier-Oakley), both of which would establish additional funding and accountability reforms for these types of improvements. According to data shared by the Coalition: • • • California drivers pay an average of $762 annually in car repairs due to pothole-filled roads. (National Transportation Research – TRIP, 2016) It costs eight times more to fix a road than to maintain it. Preventive care cost: $115,000 per mile. Rehabilitative care cost: $894,000 per mile. (CalTrans State of the Pavement report, 2015) California’s 2016 statewide average Pavement Condition Index was 65 (“Good/At Risk”). (California Statewide Local Streets and Roads Needs Assessment, 2016) Learn more online at fixcaroads.com or on Twitter, @FixCARoads. gmhtoday.com 15